Friday, June 2, 2017

Mosul Campaign Day 228 Jun 1 2017

There were more problems with the optimistic timeline laid
out by the Iraqi forces on their planned progress in the Mosul battle. June 1
was when the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) were supposed to have feed Zinjali, Shifa
and Saha,
which are the neighborhoods north of the Old City district along the Tigris
River. There was fighting in all three of those areas, but no reported
advances. The ISF are always saying they are trying to protect civilians, but
the reality of battle is something else. Residents
in Old Mosul said there were streets and yards full of dead bodies from
artillery and air strikes. The Islamic State continued to target people
attempting to flee as well. Twelve people were reportedly killed and 23 wounded
by IS firetrying
to escape, and the group executed
another 8. Residents of the city have suffered huge casualties during the
fighting from all sides. The government’s decision to tell people to stay in
the city proved a major mistake, and IS using human shields and targeting
civilians all played a role.

In the liberated section of Mosul the army, police and
national intelligence agency conducted a series of sweeps looking for IS
members. That resulted in several arrests. There are still fears of sleeper
cells and infiltration, plus insurgents that simply melted away into the
population to hide from prosecution.

The Hashd resumed offensive operations in west Mosul. Yesterday
they were stopped by an IS counter attack. June 1 they freed
one town, assaulted another, and were heading towards a border crossing. During
the day there was a report
that Hashd units had crossed into Syria and seized two villages. That was later
denied.
Many Hashd officials have been talking about moving into Syria if the
government permitted them. A lot of the units are already engaged in the battle
fighting for the Assad government. While the desire is there to formally move
into Syria they have said they would not do so without government approval.

Deputy Hashd commander Abu Muhandis told
the media that after the Iraq-Syrian border was liberated it would be turned
over to the border police. There has been much talk of Pro-Iranian Hashd groups
wanting to get to the area so that they could assist Tehran in moving men and
materials from Iran across Iraq and into Syria to help the Assad regime. Muhandis’
comments were likely aimed at countering that narrative.

The Hashd’s presence in Sinjar continued to bring criticism
from the Kurds. The Chief of Staff of the Peshmerga Ministry Jabar Yawar said that the
offensive in west Ninewa should not be politicized by the Hashd. He called on
Baghdad and the Kurdistan region to let Yazidis of the district to decide the
future of their areas. The Hashd have made great fanfare from freeing several
Yazidi villages and having two militia units join its ranks. This is a great
worry to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) that is struggling to regain
control of Sinjar after it abandoned it in 2014 to the Islamic State.

ABC
News reported that the United States is still working with the Rapid
Reaction Division (RRD) after Der Spiegel, ABC and the Toronto Star had stories
on their abuse during the Ninewa campaign. The unit was blacklisted in March
2015 for human rights violations, but today the American military is praising its
work in the Mosul campaign. The Interior Ministry has launched an investigation
into the matter, and the unit in the articles was withdrawn from the front. In
reality, nothing is likely to happen just like all the other committees that
have been formed over the years into similar stories. Torture and abuse is
institutionalized within the ISF, and the authorities only give lip service to
doing something about it. The same is true for the U.S. that needs the ISF to
fight the war against the Islamic State.

There is a constant ebb and flow of people in and out of
Mosul. From May 28 to June 1 there was a dip and then a surge. On May
28 there were 378,186 registered displaced (IDPs). That went down to
377,952 on May 30, but then back up to 378,120. There are always people moving
in and out of the city. In the last two weeks there was a huge amount of
civilians fleeing, but now that heavy fighting has restarted that figure has
gone down considerably. Aid groups are afraid there could be another huge
outflow before the battle concludes.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com